WEBVTT - Episode 863: Founding Fathers – George Washington 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:08.720 On this episode of This World. The lives of these 0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:12.080 men are essential to understand the American form of government 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:15.680 and our ideals of liberty. The founding fathers all played 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:19.560 key roles in securing American independence from Great Britain and 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:21.600 in the creation of the government of the United States 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:50.640 of America. And now the life of George Washington. I 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.640 wanted to start the entire podcast series with George Washington 0:00:55.600 --> 0:01:00.600 because literally we all stand on his shoulders to the 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:04.560 degree that this is a country that has a remarkable 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:09.000 ability for freedom, that is open to everyone, and that 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:14.000 creates a framework within which normal people can lead usual 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:18.440 and extraordinary lives. All of that started and was based 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:21.880 in Washington. One of the best biographies of Washington describes 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:26.200 him as literally irreplaceable, that he is the man that 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:30.119 was the essential person for the entire creation of America. 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:33.440 And I think that's true. Every time clost and I 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:35.880 go down to Mount Vernon and we look at that 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:38.479 house he lived in with Martha and we look out 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:41.839 on the Potomac, we realize that he had this sense. 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:47.000 He loved being a farmer, he loved the land. He 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:50.720 had a sense of solidness, partly because he was so 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:54.080 big physically. I always tell people that if you played 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:57.240 Washington in the modern era, you should be basically an 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.920 nfl authensive blindman. He was physically so large for a 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:03.760 time when the average man was about five six. He 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:06.240 was also considered the best horseman in the colonies, which is, 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:09.080 if you're that big physically and you're that good a horseman, 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:16.679 he's astonishing. And Washington had this strength, both physical and moral. 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:20.960 Part of his physical strength just came, I think biologically. 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.640 He was just that big. And he worked as a farmer, 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:26.720 he worked as a frontiersman, and he used his body 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:29.279 his whole life. When he was serving in the legislature, 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:32.840 people often forget this. Washington was a professional politician. He 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:36.000 ran for office. In fact, there was a very funny story. 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:38.519 He'd been out on the West and thought of himself 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:41.080 as a hero and ran for office the first time. 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.960 And in that era, he had a one day election campaign. 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:49.040 Everybody gathered at the polls and the candidates bought alcohol 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:54.920 and got free beer, free wine, free whiskey, and Washington said, no, 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:57.600 I am a military hero. I don't need to buy 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:01.959 anything primally, and he came in last. The following election, 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:04.800 he bought the largest quantity of alcohol ever bought in 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.440 a Virginia election, and he won. People said, I you'd 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:09.800 be going to learn the trade here, which also fed 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:14.120 Washington's general pattern. Many experts have studied his campaigns and said, 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:18.000 he made many mistakes once, but you never finally making 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:20.800 the same mistake twice. So he's down and at the 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:23.080 House of Burgesses. And I always recommend to people to 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:27.959 go to Williamsburg because it is such a remarkable recreation 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:31.000 of that era. And you can go to the taverns, 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:33.920 and Washington went to in the evenings. They didn't have TV, 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:36.560 they didn't have computer games. So they'd sit around playing 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:39.720 cards and drinking and talking with each other. And it 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:44.360 was a very famous squire named Governor Bird. And Governor 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:48.480 Bird would find some stranger and he said, I'll bet 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:52.320 you a shilling that George Washington can break a walnut 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:56.000 between his thumb and his first finger. Now, I urge 0:03:56.040 --> 0:04:00.000 you sometime to try this, because it takes extraordinary strength. 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:02.720 And so he'd go over Washington be playing cards or 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:07.880 telling stories, and he said, Colonel Washington. At this stage 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.040 he had become an honorary colonel in the Virginia militia, 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:17.280 would you mind breaking a walnut? And Washington would break 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:21.520 the walnut. He'd collected the shilling that presumably bought Washington 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:24.080 a drink for the favor, But it was again a 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:28.080 sign of in an age when people value being strong physically, 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.080 Washington was the strongest, but it was our show morally 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:35.320 strong in the sense, first of all, you can get 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:38.320 from Mount Vernon the rules he wrote at fourteen years 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:40.400 of age, which he had copied out of several books, 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:44.880 and which were rules for being a gentleman. And he 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:50.200 wanted very much to have respect. He wanted what the 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:52.840 Romans had called vertu in the sense that you are 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:56.000 a virtuous person, not in our modern sense of sin, 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:58.960 but in the sense that you have served the community. 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:01.880 You are bigger the normal history. You're going to live 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:04.360 on in history as a person who's done his job. 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:09.600 And so Washington wanted to project this sense of authority, 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.440 the sense of I am and it says, in fact, 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:14.680 I'm noble in a in a world where her there's 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:17.520 no nobility in the new world. At that point, it's 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:23.320 a famous story of Washington in Philadelphia, and I think 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:28.760 at the Constitutional Convention and Governor Morris takes a five 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.359 pound bet that he can walk over and slap Washington 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:35.880 on the shoulder, and he goes over. He gets close, 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:39.800 he gets closer, Washington turns and looks down on him. 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:43.360 Because Washington looks down, and everybody except Jefferson and Morris 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:47.320 stands and looks at him and says, good evening in 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:50.240 general Washington, he walks back over the eyes says, it's 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:54.520 your five pounds. It is physically impossible to touch Washington 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:59.840 because he is projects this almost force field of dignity 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:05.440 that you can't penetrate. And he used that to enormous effect. Now, ironically, 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:09.320 when he was a general, for example, serving the places 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:11.960 that were pretty desperately valley forged in the winter, he 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:14.200 would go out and throw medicine balls with the troops. 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:17.520 He was physically very engaged. So it's not that he 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:21.640 was incapable of being close. He loved to dance. He 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:24.520 was capable of being close. But when he decided that 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:28.400 he was aloof, he was a loof beyond anyone normally 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:31.520 being able to deal with them. And that was very 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:34.640 important that he didn't start that way, but he grew 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:38.520 into that person. He started as a relatively poor kid, 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:41.760 went to the Caribbean, got a slight case of smallpox, 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:44.240 which turned out to be really valuable because it meant 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:48.480 that he was vaccinated. He also was in a position 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:53.479 where he watched life in the Caribbean and realized he 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:57.000 didn't particularly like that life. Came back home. Was not 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:01.360 wealthy personally, he's adequately, but he knew he'd have to 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:03.440 earn a living, so became a surveyor. By the time 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:06.920 he is nineteen years of age, he is surveying. In fact, 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:09.240 if he had a little Washington, which is a town 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:12.800 that has a remarkable in called the End of Washington, 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:15.400 which is a Michelan the first place to get a 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:20.280 Micheline star in America. Washington laid out the entire town 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:22.600 at nineteen years of age. Now to give you a 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:24.480 sense of how the world's different. Look at a map 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:29.600 little Virginia and it is about seventy miles west of 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:32.720 Washington and about fifty miles south. That was the frontier, 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:38.400 not Kentucky, not Texas. I mean western Virginia was the frontier. 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:41.360 And Washington spent a large part of his youth in 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:44.400 the frontier, first as a surveyor. Where we aren't fairly 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:47.520 good money. He also learned something people tend to forget. 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:52.720 Surveyors can look at topography, so as when he's a 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.000 general officer later he looks at a battlefield with a 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:59.920 level of technical knowledge that no other general officer has 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:03.320 because he knows how to he knows the distances because 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:06.400 he's surveyed, he knows the rolling hills, he knows how 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:09.200 to look for gullies. He knows how in an age 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:11.280 when he didn't have helicopters, and he didn't have tanks, 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:14.120 and he didn't have cars, even a small rise is 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:15.640 a big deal if the other guy's got to come 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:19.360 up in because it wears them out and slows them down. 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:23.400 And so he's very good at looking at terrain. And 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:25.200 he learned all this by the time he was nineteen 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:28.040 to twenty years of age. He's given an assignment. He's 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:30.840 very precocious. He's very close to the Fairfax family and 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:34.719 they're among the largest landowners in the colony of Virginia. 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.800 He gets an assignment to go west. This is supposed 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:40.360 to be a peaceful assignment. The French have come down 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:45.440 from Canada. They have occupied the place where the Ohio 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:48.200 River is formed by two rivers coming together and where 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.440 Three River Stadium is nowadays. He's given a letter to 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:53.360 take to them that says you got to get out 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:57.080 of here, and the French basically think you're a nice 0:08:57.120 --> 0:09:00.440 young goy. What we're not getting out of here? Washington 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:03.000 picks a fight. He's not he was not as signed 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:05.720 to pick a fight. He's just very pugnaciously, very young. 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:09.400 And he then ends up at a place called Fort Necessity, 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:13.360 where they stop and I've been out visiting Fort Necessity, 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:18.600 which still exists as a national historical monument, and this 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:21.160 is clearly a sign that he's not applying his survey 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:23.760 or skills, because the fort is in the bottom of 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:26.640 a valley where the other guys up above are shooting 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:30.080 down at you. Furthermore, they have huge reign. The place 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:33.960 gets totally wet, their powder gets wet. They have no 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:38.000 choice except to surrender. Very fortunate for America he wasn't killed. 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:40.560 I mean, at that point, the French and Indians who 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.880 are their allies, are really pissed off at Washington and 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:46.280 here's this young guy out here picking a fight. And 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:50.160 you can literally argue that the Seven Years' War, which 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:52.520 we call the French Indian War, the Seven Years War, 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:56.280 which is a global war in India. He goes in Europe, 0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:59.360 it's in North America, it's in the Caribbean. It started 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:02.640 by George Washingington who just picks this fight, and the 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:05.520 fight starts going down to the Washington comes back home. 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:08.920 Imagine this the early twenties, your first big assignment. It's 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:11.520 a total mess. So what does he do? He writes 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:14.000 a pamphlet. He says, I was really right. I did 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:16.040 exactly the right thing, the only thing you could have done, 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:18.280 and none of it was my fault. And I'm really 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:20.000 proud of to do it well. I played well. The 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:22.080 average person doesn't know anything about what's going on. There's 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:25.679 no television, there's no live coverage from Fort Necessity, and 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:29.840 so the only explanation of what happened is Washington's and 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:32.760 copies of it get to London, and he's now a 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:36.880 persona He's a real person. So along comes the British. 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:39.040 Finally said okay, this is going to be real war. 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:42.160 You got to get engaged. They send an army and 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.120 Washington gets some of his first basic lessons, and this 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:49.800 is selling people often forget. Washington learned a lot about 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:53.200 war by being at war. He didn't learn about war 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:59.559 by reading theoretical works, and so they need a colonial advisor. 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:05.080 British aristocracy was totally contemptuous to the colonials, and I 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:08.560 thought they were basically stupid and lazy and cowardly. And furthermore, 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:12.040 they want British aristocrats. They were also contemptuous of British soldiers, 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:15.559 and they're contemptious of Heshman mercenaries because they're British aristocrats. 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:19.560 So Washington has assigned and he has some advice for him. 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:22.319 He says, it is not helpful to march down the 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.480 middle of the road in red outfits because the other 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:28.240 side will cheat and they will fire from behind trees 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:31.680 and you're going to get killed. And General Braddock explains 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:36.720 to them, you obviously don't understand European warfare, but just relax. 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:39.520 They actually leave. If you go to the Army War 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:42.160 College at Carlisle, you can see the post from which 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:45.600 they left, and they might again remember the Carlile. Pennsylvania, 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:48.600 which is next to Harrisburg, is the beginning of the frontier. 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:54.079 So they're now marching through the Pennsylvania forest and surprise, surprise, 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.480 they get attacked by people who are cheating there. They're 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.959 wearing outfits that blend into the forest, and the French 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:04.680 are not wearing the normal white French uniforms, which they 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:07.040 do when they're informal warfare, but when they're fighting in 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:10.400 the woods, they're wearing stuff that fits the woods. The Indians, 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:13.160 of course, have no uniforms anyway, and so the combined 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:16.720 French and Indian force attacks. Braddock is killed almost immediately. 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:21.640 The British force is disintegrating. I mean, they're confused, they're scared, 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:24.160 they've lost their commander. And the one guy who's on 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:29.000 the tallest horse is Washington, and so Washington starts to 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:31.160 rally them, get them reorganized, get them the hell out 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:33.480 of the way, because they're in real danger of being 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:37.080 a massacred. The Washington in that fight has four bullet 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:40.040 holes in his coat and has two horses shot out 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:42.920 from He reached his brother the next day. God must 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:45.880 have really been protecting him, because at some point one 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:48.200 of those bulls should have hit him and it was lucky. 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:50.640 And then he began insists on being up on these horses, 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:54.040 which is important for his men's morale because they can 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:55.520 see they at least have a leader, even if he's 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:58.000 a colonial. But at the same time it sort of 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:01.800 makes shift target. Decade later, he runs into an Indian 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:04.880 chieftain of a tribal council, and the chieftain says, God 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:07.080 must have some big role for you, because I personally 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:09.880 shot at you thirteen times. He said, all of us 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:11.760 are trying to kill you because you were so obvious, 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:16.760 and we just couldn't itch you. That's important later because Washington, 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:19.839 after that fight in his own mind as a man 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:40.400 of destiny. So he goes back home, marries a very 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:45.559 wealthy widow who brings him Mount Vernon, and I think 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:48.839 a genuine love match. She has two children. They never 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:51.840 have children on their own. Washington raises the children as 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:54.680 his own, and he and Martha entertainment. And this is 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:59.280 one of the things to remember Colonial Virginia. If you 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:04.160 were reasonably in Washington in Land was the wealthiest columnist, 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:08.080 not as wealthy as the Fairfaxes. But the Fairfaxes eventually 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:10.800 leave during the Revolution, at which point he becomes the 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:14.360 wealthiest person in America in Land, not in money, but 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:17.280 you always entertain if you look at the Fuda Mount 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:20.680 Vernon and you look at the register of who comes by. 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:24.120 There are always people coming to visit. I mean, at 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:28.680 one point later in his life, James Madison comes over 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:32.120 and spends I think six weeks living with Washington, writing, 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:36.040 arguing and writing about the Constitution and the just used 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.320 to this. This is this is their life. Washington regularly 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:42.760 will ride up to Alexandria, and if you want to, 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:46.240 you can go to Gatsby's Tavern, which still exists, which 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:49.840 was the site of Washington's birthday parties, and he would 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:51.920 they'd all ride up together and have a great party 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:54.600 and have a few drinks. Intended to party during the 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:59.000 daytime so they could get home around dark. But it 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:01.400 was this was It's all real. It was a social life. 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:03.480 It was a nice life. And Washington's faced with the 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:06.840 same problem as every other American, which is, you are 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:12.320 trying to have a cash based economy with no cash 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:15.760 and you're dealing with British merchants who are constantly cheating you, 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:18.280 cheating you in the sense that they want to pay 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:20.600 you less for what you sell and charge you more 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:23.760 for what they sell. So you're always juggling us very 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:28.040 tight financial burden and you're not particularly happy with the British, 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:32.080 and Washington is serving in public life as a legislator, 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:36.680 but mostly he's a farmer and a gentleman who is 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.360 nice to people who come wandering through. And then the 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:42.000 British decide that they're going to pay for the debt 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:45.800 coming out of the Seven Years' War by raising taxes 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:48.960 on the Americans, and their rationale is not crazy. The 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:51.720 rationale is, look, we saved you from the French, we 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:54.960 saved you from the Indians. Things are relatively safe. You 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:58.320 ought to pay your fair share. Now the American attitude 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:01.440 is very different. The American attitude is, you know, it's 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:03.920 not our fault that you're a profigate government in London 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:06.160 and that you waste all your money and that you're 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:09.080 surrounded by corruption, and no, we're not going to pay anything. 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:11.720 You know, we're happy to have you around, but frankly, 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:13.560 since we no longer have any threat from the French, 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.080 why do we need you? And so you have this 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:19.040 weird moment where the British think the generosity is going 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:21.480 to leave the Americans out of gratitude don't want to 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:24.400 pay taxes, and the Americans are saying, no, the very 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:26.680 fact that you one means we don't need you. And 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:29.480 Washington's in the faction. That's fine. You know, I don't 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:31.440 think I want to pay any taxes. I mean, I 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:34.040 don't like those guys anyway. They'll always trying to cheat me. 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:36.440 He's not a fire Brown, He's not out there saying 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:39.440 let's rebel, let's do something, but he's clearly in the 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:44.800 group around Patrick Henry and others who want to stand 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:47.600 up to the English. And then, of course you end 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:51.200 up with a series of events. Again, thinking yourself as 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:55.440 a planter sitting on the Potomac River having a nice life. 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:59.600 You're not connected by cable TV, you're not connected by internet. 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:03.280 You know, you don't get any text messages. You occasionally 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:05.359 read things, and so one day you read or you 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:08.879 hear from somebody who's riding through spending the night that 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:13.440 there was the massacre in Boston and the British troops 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:17.679 had shot Americans who were protesting. Well, you sort of 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:21.440 start thinking about that, did that happen here? Could it 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.640 happen at Williamsburg? Do I feel a little pissed off 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:28.520 that the British are shooting Americans? And the alienation starts 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:33.640 to build, and the call goes out to come to Philadelphia, 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:36.679 and let's talk about how bad this is getting. When 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:39.920 the British decide to impose taxes that the Americans really 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:43.919 get mad about, particularly tacks on tea, which leads to 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:49.400 the Bostonians dressing up as Indians and having a tea 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:53.280 party throwing all the Indian East Indian Company tea into 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.320 the river. And ironically, the British thought they were being 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:59.439 clever because they actually had organized it so that the 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:03.560 price he would be less under the new rules, even 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:06.680 though you paid taxes and the Americans got none. No, 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:10.600 it's the principle, we don't care that it's cheaper. We 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:13.000 care that part of the money goes to you, and 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:15.760 we're not going to pay your money. And so they're 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:18.199 cheerfully throwing all of these bales of tea, which are 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:21.960 very valuable, into the Boston harbor, which really makes the 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:24.600 British pretty bad. And so the British decided that they're 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:28.159 going to close down on Boston and ultimately isolate the 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:31.360 city of Boston to punish it, in the theory that 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:33.560 that will then scare the rest of the Americans into 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:36.320 being obedient. But what it really does is just makes 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:40.280 them angry. So the call goes out, they meet and 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:42.919 then what is called the Continental Congress, which is a 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:45.720 huge breakthrough. I mean, these people hadn't thought of themselves 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:50.320 as Americans. They were Virginians, they were Georgians, they were Massachusetts. 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.520 They spoke very different dialects in the sense of the 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:58.119 tone of their language, the patterns they ate differently, and 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:01.080 they hadn't really begun to identify them they were Americans. 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:04.639 And now they have this problem, and Washington's one of 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:08.240 the people who's drifting towards being more and more alienated 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:10.840 and more and more angry, and he's ultimately affected, I 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:14.800 think in part by Benjamin Franklin. Franklin is a world 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:17.960 class scientist recognized all over the world. He is a 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:22.000 very successful businessman who makes enough money by forty to 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:25.200 sell his businesses and devote himself to public life. He 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:29.359 writes for Richard's Almanac every year and is very widely 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:34.240 known as the first postmaster General of the colonies, and 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:37.040 therefore has connections at all of the colonies because he 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:40.240 handles the mail. And he is sent by the Colony 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:44.200 of Pennsylvania to London to plead with the British and 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.120 to basically say, look, there's some things we need solved, 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:50.320 and we can be nice. He spends about seven or 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:55.440 eight years in London, and he ends up suddenly realizing 0:19:56.200 --> 0:20:00.639 they'll never accept it. They're aristocrats. He's not an aristocrat, 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:03.240 even though he's a world famous scientist, even though he's 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:07.280 wealthier than some of the aristocrats. There'll never be anything 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:13.280 in British society. And it just totally infuriates And somebody 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:16.199 once wrote that he left America as an Englishman and 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:19.880 he returned as an American, and so his spirit made 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:23.520 he's very widely respected. People like Washington look to him 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:26.200 and say, you know, you've been there, you've lived there, 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:29.680 what do you think And he's basically saying, I don't 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:31.920 think we have any choice. These people are never going 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:34.880 to treat us fairly now they think they were servants. 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:39.520 And so the spirit begins to build, and the British 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:42.680 begins sending troops to Boston because they're determined to crush 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:45.080 the spirit of resistance and they think that if they 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:49.639 can break Boston that that will symbolically shift the whole country. Now, 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:53.440 one of the myths about Washington is that he's sort 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:58.560 of self effacing He's this guy who really wasn't ambitious. 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:00.879 But I've always saw one of them telling things. In 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:03.760 the Commonal Congress, there is only one person wearing a 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:08.000 military uniform. He's also the one of the two biggest 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:10.880 people of Jefferson and the other Jefferson Stein, but tall, 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:14.399 very tall. The Washington is big. I see this huge 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:17.920 guy walking around in the uniform of a Virginia militia 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:22.879 and saying to everybody, of course, I wouldn't want to 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:26.120 go to Boston. I don't want you to think I'm 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:29.320 a military man just because I'm standing here in my uniform. 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:31.040 But it just seemed to me it was the appropriate 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:33.960 thing to wear. And gradually they all look around each 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:37.960 andy go aha, because they have a problem politically. They 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:42.080 need a Southerner to go to Boston because they need 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:46.639 to unify the columns. They can't appoint a Bostonian or 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:49.119 a New Hampshire Rite to be commander of the army 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:53.280 because they'll have no linkage to New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:56.240 and Virginia is the biggest colony in wealth and population 0:21:56.320 --> 0:22:01.200 at that point, so they could turn to Washington. He says, 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:05.199 with great reluctance, I will accept this burden, although I 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:08.639 fear that I will be inadequate and I probably will fail. 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:11.840 But as long as you recognize that I'm only doing 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:16.199 this because he wanted me to, I will go to Boston. 0:22:17.440 --> 0:22:19.800 And I think it's hard for us to realize. You're 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:24.120 this guy who's in many ways an aristocrat. He's very wealthy. 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:27.399 You know, he rides a horse very well in the 0:22:27.440 --> 0:22:29.480 style of the wrist. If you're a farmer, you don't 0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:32.080 ride a horse the way George Washington does. He rode 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:34.760 to the Foxes and he shows up, and you have 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:37.639 to think about this. You have a new England Army 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:42.000 and this weird guy shows up from Virginia, speaking in 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:45.760 a slightly strange English and with an attitude of being 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:49.560 sort of a little lustere and a little you know, 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:51.879 And he's got to really think about this because he 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:54.440 realizes he's got to find a way to get all 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:58.320 these new wonders to follow him, or he's got a problem. 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:01.679 And so he works at it, and he spends a 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:04.760 lot of time with the troops. And again, I think 0:23:04.800 --> 0:23:09.679 there's an advantage that we underestimate. If you imagine this 0:23:09.720 --> 0:23:13.040 as a movie scene, you'd have this, as I said, 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:14.919 a guy in the modern era who's the size of 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:20.159 an NFL offensive lineman and you're walking around the camp. Well, 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:22.879 it's pretty obvious when he walks around the camp because 0:23:22.920 --> 0:23:26.320 he towers over everybody. He's also the strongest guy in 0:23:26.359 --> 0:23:29.560 the army. Well, it gives them a certain sense of 0:23:29.600 --> 0:23:33.480 immediate acceptance that he should be the leader. And he 0:23:33.560 --> 0:23:37.240 designs a very intelligent strategy and they move from the 0:23:37.320 --> 0:23:39.560 cannon in a position where the British have to flee. 0:23:40.400 --> 0:23:42.480